1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic icemaker for supplying water, making ice, and discharging ice repeatedly in accordance with predetermined sequence.
2. Description of the Related Art
The general usage of conventional automatic icemakers mounted to household refrigerators is as follows. The automatic icemaker is installed in a freezer. Water is supplied to ice molds from above an ice-making tray of the automatic icemaker. The water in the ice molds is cooled at ambient temperature. After ice is made, the ice-making tray is twisted to eject the ice. In this case, the ice is not ejected from the ice-making tray certainly due to the adhesion force between the ice-making tray and ice even when the ice-making tray is twisted. To eject the ice certainly, solutions for improving a shape and material of the ice-making tray and a method for the ice ejection have been suggested.
For example, the solutions are as follows. The shape of the ice molds is made to have a lozenge or parallelogram shape. A mixture including a material having a large contact angle with water is used as a material for the ice-making tray, the mixture being such as silicon. Ice molds are provided to both sides of the ice-making tray, and when ice is ejected from the ice molds of one side, water is supplied to the ice molds of another side. Two stoppers for twisting the ice-making tray are disposed such that the ice-making tray is twisted by one stopper, and after that, the tray is rotated oppositely, and twisted by another stopper to eject the ice.
However, the above solutions need to use an ice-making tray having a special shape and material and a complicated control method and mechanism.